A former Saskatoon doctor who was found guilty of unprofessional conduct still denies telling a patient that being transgender is an “abomination of God” and a “perversion.”

According to the charge against her by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, Dr. Adarine Mary Anderson said in relation to transgender people that “it would be the end of the world because there would be no more females or males to reproduce.”

The complainant alleged that Anderson said being transgender is an “abomination of God” and a “perversion,” and that “little boys don’t feel special anymore.” She was also accused of telling the patient, “I don’t understand how you can be male if you have breasts.”

Anderson, who practised at the Blairmore Walmart walk-in clinic at the time of the incident, denies making those statements.

“I am reported to have said things but I didn’t say them. I didn’t say it in the way it was reported,” Anderson said Friday in an interview.

According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan’s charge of unprofessional conduct and the penalty presentation, the incident took place on Jan. 5, 2016, when Anderson saw a patient for “reasons related to bronchitis” — something completely unrelated to the patient’s transition to male from female.

According to the documents, the disciplinary hearing committee found it “probable” that Anderson “launched into an unsolicited running commentary” regarding transitioning. Anderson made statements “which were insensitive and unrelated to the reasons for which the patient requested your medical services,” according to the charges against Anderson.

“The evidence was very clear by the patient,” associate registrar Bryan Salte said Friday in an interview. “The patient said, ‘This is what I was told.’ The discipline committee found the patient to be very reliable and fully accepted what the patient described as the interaction between the patient and Dr. Anderson.”

The patient was traumatized by the experience and cried afterwards, “so there was certainly an impact on the patient,” Salte said.

Anderson was found guilty in a disciplinary hearing on Oct. 30 of improper, unprofessional and discreditable conduct. After a penalty hearing on Friday, the college council ordered her to take sensitivity training and pay a fine of $2,500.

Anderson, who has not previously been found guilty of unprofessional conduct, said she did not plan to attend the hearing.

“I have informed the college that I do not accept the way this matter has been handled. I do not feel that I am guilty of any charge, and I have told them also that I am going to take the matter up in New Zealand when I go back, which is very soon,” she said.

Anderson denied making the statements, saying instead that she was only trying to warn her patient about the “rocky road” the patient was embarking on by changing gender.

“Major surgery is offered to these people. This major surgery to me seems absolutely shocking. And I wanted to just warn her (that) there’s more to changing your gender then changing your name. And this particular person was so distinctly feminine, I couldn’t see how she would ever make this transgender.

“I just thought, ‘This is not going to work for you.’ I almost felt, ‘You’ve had a little aberration of the mind.’ She was so young, she was only 18. And I wanted her to come back and see me. I wanted to work out, ‘Why have you gone on this route?’ ”

“I have felt that I could not, sadly, communicate with the college. I could not speak with someone who could understand that I was a physician and I was only concerned for this person,” Anderson said.

Anderson, 75, said she earned her medical licence in 1969. She has worked on and off in Saskatchewan and other countries since 1995, according to the penalty presentation. She has retired and will soon return to New Zealand, she said.

“This incident has certainly made this last year not the pleasant, happy time it could have been.”

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